Marikana massacre: SA reflects on a decade since darkest hour

Marikana massacre: SA reflects on a decade since darkest hour

As we reflect on one of the darkest days in the country's history, we're reminded of the courage and resolve of the Lonmin mine workers who were massacred. 

Marikana 1

Activist Trevor Ngwane says the spirit of Marikana was born on that mountain.

 

"That is what those miners who died and those who survived are giving to their children, children's children. We are giving to all the people who are oppressed and exploited in the world.

 

It's been a decade since police massacred 34 striking workers on a Marikana koppie in Rustenburg. Another 10 people. including police officers and security guards, were killed in the events that unfolded before August the 16th.

 

Ngwane says the horrific shootings exposed what he calls a bourgeois democracy which continues to oppress the working class. He says the so-called reparations that saw the widows of the slain miners brought to work as cleaners at Lonmin signify the continued exploitation of the less privileged.

 READ: KZN municipalities under fire at SAHRC hearings into water woes

"Those miners died digging out platinum for those bosses and when it's time for reparations they say our reparations to you is that you take the place of those who died and continue to exploit you."

 

 A living wage of R12,500 a month was what the miners were asking for instead one rock driller from the Eastern Cape was shot with 12 bullets.

 

Nomzamo Zondo, with the socio-economics rights institute, says the rock driller was the last person to be shot in the mountain.

 

"When he died, he died an orphan, unmarried and without a child. And while he worked at Lonmin he supported his sister, brother and parents and made sure their children had food on the table."

newswatch new banner 2

MORE FROM ECR


Show's Stories